1. In my household, there is a baby who goes to daycare. She often brings back respiratory infections.

2. I never get enough sleep, which compromises my immune system, which means I tend to get bronchitis/laryngitis more often than I would like (moreso after doing my own soundproofing with dusty, dusty acoustic tiles last year, and moreso after picking up the pneumonia from the Chongqing smog last Christmas). Lately, my colds head straight for the throat.

3. I've been singing with a band lately.

What does a person in a situation like this do to preserve/maintain any kind of voice right now?

I ask mainly because I have a practice tonight and woke up talking like Don Corleone. (Why do you come to me now, on the day of my daughter's wedding?) Singing on Wednesday night after the mike stopped working might have been ill advised.

Any other vocal tips and exercises are also appreciated... as well as links to online voice-as-instrument resources.

Okay, my old wives' remedy is vile but it fucking works. I do a lot of voiceover work and I am insanely sinus infection-prone, and sinus-infections give me larynxgitis. I gargle with apple cider vinegar. It is horrid and makes me retch, so I sometimes cut it with water. But still, get that shiznit down your throat and REALLY gargle with it, roll it around, get it all over your pipes (surpress the gag reflect. {sidenote:for anyone who performs fellatio, it ought not to be difficult)}, and really let it work its way around your throat. Then, for the love of Pete, spit it out, do NOT swallow. Rinse out the icky taste. You'll be able to talk/sing.

Otherwise, I forget who makes it, but there's a lemon/honey spray for vocals out there. It doesn't scrape off the crap, but it feels nice.

Lastly - avoid dairy products because they ruin one's vox. And, if you're also prone to sinii probs, do a shot of afrin pre-recording. The clearness only lasts 5-10 minutes, but you can get out what you need to get out. Zicam is always helpful for clearing out sinii and nasal passages.

honey and lemon juice are really good from what i've heard (in fact I remember a documentary on the "Two Towers" DVD where they mentioned a special "Gollum juice," so that actor Andy Serkis wouldn't ruin his voice; it consisted of honey, lemon juice and ginger).

But then, as long as you get the physical aspects of singing right, you shouldn't need too much other help.

Its like Windex, but for your throat!
Back when I was a vocalist, I had read that Steven Page (of Barenaked Ladies fame) was a smoker, and was very very defensive about it. Defensive to the point of his insistence that it helped his throat perform. After trying that for a couple of months, I found that the basic throat coat tea does do the trick.

Liz wrote: But then, as long as you get the physical aspects of singing right, you shouldn't need too much other help.

Well, how about some wisdom on the physical aspects of singing?

So there I went, thinking I could just throw some wise-ass comment into an ongoing conversation and then leave again quietly.

Well, I don't have terribly much wisdom myself in that department, but I had to see a physiotherapist a few times; she's also a singer/musician and gave me more useful hints for playing music than any music teacher could have done in such a short time.

We mostly talked about playing instruments, but I’d say if your get your breathing-"technique" right, you should be all set (some interesting trivia: a trained opera singer needs as much physical strength as a logger doing his work).

Back to instruments – if, for example, you’re playing guitar, and you’re slouching and rather limp, the whole weight of the guitar will be put on your shoulder, whereas if your torso is more tense, the weight is distributed on several muscles. Now when you’re singing, there might be too much strain on just your vocal chords if your breathing is not effective.
Again, these are not my own words of wisdom, but it made sense to me.

Also, I don't think you need extensive vocal training to be a good singer, but I would definitely ask some singer for advice on how to produce a good singing voice. If you got that right, remedies for your throat should only be secondary methinks.